Loose Diamonds
by KHCrazy
Summary: Not a one shot. Clara loses her mother's ring somewhere in the TARDIS and the Doctor helps her look for it, and together they discover parts of the TARDIS neither of them knew existed. This is a Tumblr prompt, I got it from the wonderful Whouffle Library blog, see link inside. I'm rubbish at summaries but I hope you click on the story and enjoy it. R&R please! COMPLETE!
1. Chapter 1

**Hello all!  
I've not posted anything on this website for what seems like ages. Its probably only been a couple months though, c:  
Well, I'm back with a _Whouffle One-Shot!_ Who doesn't love a bit of Whouffle?  
I found this prompt on the wonderful Tumblr blog _Whouffle Library! _  
Of course, if any of you reading this and have already written this prompt, I sincerely apologize, though I'm sure mine is _much _different from yours. xx It's set in pre-TNotD time, probably sometime after JttCotT or TCH. Maybe in between those two episodes. **

**Oh and I have to give a shoutout to LBWind, who ever so kindly helped edit this piece of work.**

**Anyway! I hope you enjoy my newest story, which should hopefully be to your liking! Enjoy!**

**~KHC~**

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"Doctor!" Clara's frantic voice rang out from the hallway. Curious, the Doctor peeked his head around the circular, electricity-filled glass funnel, squinting in the direction that Clara's voice was coming from.

"Clara?" The Doctor called, emerging from around the six-sided console and moving to stand at the top of the stairs. The Doctor heard Clara's soft, urgent, footsteps coming closer, faltering as they rounded corners. The Doctor allowed himself an amused look as Clara came into view. She pattered up the stairs, standing in front of the Doctor with her eyes filled with tears.

The Doctor's smile vanished, and with his thumb, he wiped away a tear that had escaped her eyelid when she blinked. "What's wrong?" He asked, his forehead wrinkling and his olive green eyes growing worried.

She held up her right hand, the back of her hand facing the Doctor. Immediately, the Doctor noticed that the middle finger was bare. "It's my ring, my mum's ring, the one you got back for me after our trip to Akhaten. It's missing," Clara said, her eyes filling with tears again.

The Doctor looked down on his Clara, or so he liked to call her in his head, with pity. "It can't be far, you obviously lost it somewhere inside the TARDIS." Clara's outer demeanor changed quite suddenly, from terrible sadness to what appeared to be anger, but in her eyes, it was obvious she was still torn up. "Did you just tell me that it couldn't be far?" She asked quietly. "Doctor, the TARDIS is _infinite._ And knowing that grumpy old cow, she probably hid it from me!"

The Doctor grabbed a rag from his back pocket, smacking the TARDIS console with it. "Did you hide Clara's mum's ring, you silly old girl?"

The TARDIS whirred with an angry tone, as if she were insulted by such an accusation and the degrading descriptions of herself. "Okay..." The Doctor looked up at the Gallifreyan engraved in the steel at the top of his console. "… Fine." He turned back to Clara, raising his arms and snapping, dancing on his toes, trying desperately to think of what he could do for her. When he brought his arms down, he took Clara's hand, and holding her small, petite one in both his larger ones, he kissed her fingers. He did realize, actually, that it did indeed feel different to kiss her fingers when one was missing a ring. "I suppose you'll need some help finding that ring?"

Clara's eyes went from his face to their intertwined hands and she was finally able to muster a little half-smile. She nodded.

"Now then, let's go find that ring, shall we?" The Doctor removed one hand, leaving the other underneath Clara's. She wrapped her hand around the Doctor's, finally able to assemble a smile genuine enough to reveal the dimple on her left cheek.

The Doctor always did love that dimple. There was another on the opposite cheek, but he really did adore the one on the left side. He seemed to have an affinity of sorts for them.

He led Clara down the steps and to the hallway, circling around until he came to their bedroom, not that he ever usually slept in it with her. He never really needed rest.

"Okay, Clara, where is the last place you left it?" The Doctor asked, folding his hands in front of him.

A slightly irritated look crossed Clara's face. "I asked you to come to help me, not interrogate me."

The Doctor rolled his eyes, "Just come along, Clara."

She shot him a look. "Fine..." She pointed toward a large wooden dresser. "I had taken it off for a minute, because I had seen that the diamond was loose. I was coming up to see if you could fix it with your sonic screwdriver-y thingy, when I felt the TARDIS bump around a little. I checked to see if everything was still in order, and I suppose the ring just wasn't there."

"So it just disappeared, poof?" The Doctor asked, bending down on all fours and looking under the dresser, finding nothing but little mothballs.

"Poof." Clara said, crossing her arms and moving toward the Doctor. He sighed, getting up and looking down on Clara. He smiled a little. "I suppose we'll just have to go on a little adventure then, won't we?"

"Well I suppose we will." Clara replied, smiling as they interlocked arms and began down the hallway.


	2. Chapter 2

**Oh my gosh! Thank you all for the follows and favorites! It means so much to me! **

**Anyway, credit to the brilliant _Whouffle Library_ for the prompt idea, and a shoutout to LBWind for editing this chapter, as well! I do not own Doctor Who, it belongs to the fantastic BBC. **

**I hope you enjoy this chapter!**

**~KHC~**

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Navigating through the TARDIS was a tricky thing. At any moment, she could change her mind and wrap a complicated labyrinth around her prey. The Doctor was now walking an arm's length quicker than Clara, who even then, was attempting to keep up with him. Clara tugged on the Doctor's arm, pouting a little. "Would you slow down? I can barely keep up."

The Doctor turned to face Clara, towering over her with his magnificent height. "It's because you're so short. If you had longer legs, then maybe you'd be able to keep up."

"It's not that I'm too short, it's that you're too tall!" Clara said, watching as the Doctor failed to duck in time to avoid a low doorway, which Clara passed underneath easily. She smirked cheekily. "Even the TARDIS thinks so."

The Doctor puffed out his cheeks, extending his neck and straightening his bow tie. "Shut up!" He retaliated, but a smile was tugging at the sides of his lips.

Silence commenced, making the Doctor feel extremely awkward. Finally, Clara spoke up. "Besides, if I was taller, you wouldn't be able to feel my breath on your chest."

"Who says I like that?" The Doctor asked, becoming red in the face.

"You say you don't but I know you do." Clara said, playfully. "And plus, since I'm your girlfriend, I wouldn't expect you to mind it."

"What gave you _that thought_?" The Doctor asked, cheeks growing evermore redder.

"Artie and Angie seem to entertain the idea." Clara replied, literally looking up on the Doctor.

The Doctor grinned down at her, her his eyes softening and red cheeks draining, turning to continue walking down the hallway when he spotted a door. "Look. Come on in here. We'll search wherever we can." The Doctor insisted, opening the door by pressing the button. As his eyes adjusted to the room, he grinned in a satisfied way. "Oh, almost forgot about this room!"

Clara untwined her fingers from the Doctor's, walking in slowly and feeling her lips curve into a smile. On the far left side of the room, a lovely fireplace was crackling quite vigorously, flames licking higher in the enclosed fireplace. The polished hardwood floor was mostly covered by a TARDIS blue Persian rug, nice grey leather couches settled neatly lengthwise on the long and tasseled rug. Along the far right wall was a gorgeous granite counter jutting out of the wall, cabinets lining themselves above the counter, where food was stacked.

"Doctor," Clara began, twirling around and approaching the Doctor, "What is this room?"

The Doctor, who was still standing at the doorway, put his hand up on the top of the doorframe and smiled reminiscently. "Just an old room that I used as a living room, a long.. long, time ago."

"Why don't you use it anymore? It's a nice little.. Area." Clara stated, patting the back of one of the nice sofas briskly.

"Well firstly," the Doctor said, his finger raised as it always was when he was about to enfold himself in a speech that he knew Clara would only donate half her attention to. "I forgot it was here. The TARDIS hides things from me sometimes, if she knows they hurt me. Secondly, I never used this room, I hardly had any time to. Susan had always said that she wanted a family room, though, and I suppose that's why the TARDIS made it."

"Susan?" Clara questioned, moving closer to the Doctor.

"My, um, my granddaughter." The Doctor said.

"Well I'd like to meet her, please." Clara said, suddenly intrigued.

"You can't."

Clara was slightly shocked. "Why not?"

"Because she died in the last great Time War."

"Oh, Doctor.."

"Or maybe she didn't." The Doctor shrugged, ever the optimist. "Either way, she's gone." The Doctor clapped his hands together. "All right, Clara, lets find that ring, shall we?"

From the doorway, he flourished around the family room, clambering ungracefully onto all fours to look under the couches. Clara climbed onto the counters, sitting on her knees and opening up cabinets to see if a small glinting object could be seen in between the cans and aluminium bags. To no avail, of course.

"There's nothing here."

"Nothing here either." The Doctor replied, getting back up.

"Shall we move on, then?" Clara asked. She took the Doctor's arm, rubbing her hands over the fancy purple fabric gently.

"I believe we shall!" The Doctor said, heading down the hallway briskly again. Clara had to jog almost to keep up. The next door that the Doctor came upon was warm when Clara put her hand up against it. "Warm.." Clara withdrew her hand, putting her index finger to her chin. "Doctor, that means fire." She said, turning toward the Doctor. "Don't do it." She warned with an edge to her voice.

"Don't worry, Clara." The Doctor said. "The TARDIS isn't malfunctioning. She wouldn't have a huge ball of flaming gas behind closed doors."

"And yet, maybe she would! You don't even know! For all we know, that could be the surface of the sun!" Clara responded quickly, but nevertheless, the Doctor opened the doors carefully.

A gust of hot, wet air met them. "See, Clara? A sauna. Confirmed, definitely not the surface of the sun." The Doctor smirked. From where they were standing, the whole sauna was visible, and there wasn't one small glinting object in sight.

"Come on, Doctor, lets go." Clara laughed, as the Doctor stared, amazed, at the sauna.

"I have a sauna!" He said with a cutely dumbfounded realization.

She moved back next to the Doctor. She stood on her very tiptoes and kissed his cheek, putting one hand on his opposite one. It was a soft kiss, gentle and sweet, and Clara was actually surprised For once, he was silenced. When Clara came back down, the Doctor was blushing furiously, but he couldn't form a sentence.

"Come on!" Clara giggled like a lovestruck little girl as she took his hand and led him down another corridor. When they finally stopped, Clara was panting but the Doctor was stammering illiterately. When he was finally able to form a sentence he lifted a finger and gasped out, "What was that?"

"I had to get you to shut up somehow, didn't I?" Clara asked, tucking a chunk of hair behind her ear. The Doctor stammered more, before promptly saying "Shut up!"

Clara giggled. She loved to embarrass him. "So what room are we off to next?" Clara asked, skipping to link her arm with the ever-quickening Doctor.

"Whatever direction Sexy leads us."

Clara sighed, laughing a bit and smiling in a knowing kind of way. "You aren't talking about me, are you?"

The Doctor smiled down on Clara. He bent over so he could see easily into her eyes. He placed a hand upon her jawline. "Clara, you are not sexy. Sexy is quite a derogatory remark. You, Clara, are not sexy. You are beautiful."

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**I hope you enjoyed! The next chapter should be up soon!  
R&R PLEASE!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Again, I'm so glad you guys like my FanFic! Thanks _so much _for all the favorites, follows, and reviews, it means a lot to me! R&R please!**

**Anyway, disclaimer time:  
This prompt belongs to the marvelous Tumblr blog _Whouffle Library._  
And Doctor Who belongs to the terrific BBC! **

**~KHC~**

* * *

A huge grin spread across her face. "D-Doctor..." She barely whispered, laughs mingling up with her disbelief.

For once, the Doctor didn't look guilty or surprised at what he had just said. He looked pleased. He straightened up, untwining their arms and clasping his hand around Clara's and squeezing it reassuringly. She squeezed back, smiling up on the Doctor. Together they walked through the corridors together, not finding any doors along the way. The Doctor tore his hand gently from Clara's to stroke the metal walls and whisper, "Come on old girl, just give us a room."

Clara laughed quietly. She couldn't fathom how boys could fall so in love with an inanimate machine. The Doctor came back and grabbed onto Clara's hand again. Clara looked at the Doctor. "What's she like? The TARDIS? You've known her for _'over 900 years'_, or whatever, so what's she like? You have to know."

The Doctor smiled at Clara. "Unreliable."

"What?" Clara asked, a laugh ringing at the back of her throat.

"She wasn't reliable at all. She never took me where I wanted to go." The Doctor laughed, although a lump was forming at the back of his throat, hearing Idris's voice in his mind. _But I always took you where you needed to go._ The Doctor smiled slightly sadly as he remembered his TARDIS, when they were able to converse between each other. "But she always took me where I needed to go."

Clara looked at the Doctor. "You look sad."

"I am sad. I'm always sad. I just don't let anyone on about it."

"Why?" Clara asked. She smiled just enough to form the little dimple on her left cheek.

"Everyone I love has left me. Or I've left them. I'm 1003 and I'm the last of my kind. There's no-one else like me. And I'm lonely."

Clara frowned. "You don't have to be lonely!" She exclaimed optimistically.

The Doctor smiled sadly. "That's the thing about being the last of your species, Clara. You're just so lonely." The Doctor looked down on Clara and smiled cheekily but sadly. "All I have left is the TARDIS, really. She's my big blue box." The Doctor looked lovingly around the halls of his TARDIS. "But she turned human once. And she was dying, you can't just squeeze the TARDIS's bigger-on-the-inside technology inside a tiny human head." The Doctor playfully tapped Clara's nose, emitting a giggle from the brunette, and then continued talking. "She left me in the form of a bitey mad lady."

The TARDIS made a loud, quite angry whizzing noise and gave a bit of a bump, surprising Clara but making the Doctor smile. He chuckled. "Now, I never said I didn't like the bitey mad lady, did I?"

Clara laughed at the Doctor's antics. They were an entertaining sight. They grew silent again, holding hands and moving briskly forward. The pair stopped after mere minutes. Clara furrowed her brow as she moved in front of the Doctor. "What's wrong, why are we stopping?"

"I'm trying to calculate the exact distance we've walked from the last door."

"You're doing _what_?" Clara asked, her mouth agape.

"Trying to figure out how far away the next door will be." The Doctor said, simplifying his statement, as if that were what Clara was asking him to do, which it wasn't.

She grinned slyly. "Patience is a virtue, Doctor." Clara added, "And plus, how are you going to calculate that, _honestly, _I mean you can't predict _anything _when you're working with this cow."

"Patience is for wimps." The Doctor replied breezily, ignoring the latter of Clara's comments, counting under his breath.

"Then you must have felt very wimpy guarding me after the Spoonhead thing." Clara grinned, making weird hand motions to describe the Spoonheads before adding, "Right before our first date went something like jumping into a multidimensional Snogbox and redistributing ourselves out on a crashing airplane."

"How many times do I have to tell you, it's not a Snogbox!" The Doctor retaliated, automatically losing count. He drove the heel of his hand into his forehead, muttering, "You made me lose count," under his breath.

"Good. Now we can be surprised by the next door." Clara said, tugging the Doctor along. Very soon, the Doctor and Clara came across another door. "See? I knew we'd get here soon!" Clara giggled.

The Doctor mumbled inaudibly, watching as Clara pressed the button eagerly, ready to see what room the TARDIS would next hold.

Clara's eyes widened and she gasped at the beautifulness of this room. "How does this work, Doctor?" Clara asked, spinning around as she entered the greenhouse. Of course, it wouldn't ever be an ordinary greenhouse. Instead of sunrays shining through the glass-paned windows, it was dark and starry. Galaxies shone through the roof, bearing their light onto gorgeous plants as they glittered with multicolored gems. Clara approached a plant, which looked ordinary until she almost mistook tiny gems with swirling star clusters inside of them for dew. This greenhouse seemed endless, and it almost probably was.

The Doctor grinned as the door slid shut behind him. He approached Clara and said, "Well, its partly because this box is a different dimension. It's not really bigger on the inside. Just a different dimension. Another reason could be that the TARDIS could be messing with our heads by making rooms that don't actually exist."

Clara nodded, taking the Doctor's hand immediately. She smiled up at him, saying jokingly, "My mum's ring will be impossible to find in here."

The Doctor returned the smile. "Nothing's impossible." _Except you. You're my Impossible Girl._

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**I hope you enjoyed it!  
**


	4. Chapter 4

**This is the final chapter in _Loose Diamonds. _I'm glad all you guys have liked this Fic! R&R Please! **

**Anyway, disclaimer time as always:  
This prompt belongs to the excellent Tumblr blog _Whouffle Library._  
And Doctor Who belongs to the awesome BBC! **

**~KHC~**

* * *

Of course, Clara's ring was nowhere to be seen. The Doctor and Clara had paced up and down rows of beautiful plants, lifting up every petal carefully as to not break the gems resting on them and then gently lifting up pots to check underneath, as if that's where the thin sliver ring would be. As they got back to the entrance after searching the entire greenhouse for what seemed like an eternity, Clara was beginning to get impatient. "Nothing in there either. And even if my ring were in there, we've skipped over it completely."

The Doctor was examining a rose completely carved from a ruby when he heard Clara's remark. He pulled the faux rose from its blown-glass stem, approached Clara and put it in her dark hair, right above her ear. She smiled, the Doctor smiling back, but not in his usual manner. His smile brought a feeling of wisdom, rather than goofiness. It was as if he were missing something… Something very valuable to him.

"Are you okay?" Clara asked, noticing his sudden faraway look. Immediately, the Doctor replaced his absent look with that ordinary kooky look of his and replied, "Yep. Everything is perfectly fine, I was just temporarily lost in my thoughts."

_Rose Tyler, I—_

The Doctor shook the thought from his mind, smiling at Clara as they proceeded back into the hallway. "That was a lovely little room, yeah?" The Doctor asked with a toothy grin.

"Yeah, it was unlike anything I've ever seen." Clara responded. "It was beautiful."

Clara turned back to the room again to take one last look at the door when she discovered it was nowhere to be found. She rushed to where the door had been previously, feeling the wall for any signs that a door had been there in the first place. "You were right! The TARDIS _is _creating rooms and then deleting them! So…" Clara gasped, "If my mum's ring was in there, it's gone!" her eyes began to fill up with tears again as she began to panic.

"But it wasn't. We checked every plant and every bench. I highly doubt it's in there. Or rather, _was _in there." The Doctor replied, moving in front of Clara and kissing her forehead reassuringly.

Clara pulled away slightly. "That's not helping me feel any better, Doctor!" she said, looking up at him. _"Seriously." _

"I was only joking," The Doctor laughed, reaching over and stroking Clara's cheek lightly. "It wasn't in there. I promise."

Clara looked at him with uncertainty before her look softened and she took the Doctor's hand. "Come on, let's find another room." The Doctor said, taking one last glance at where the door had previously been before moving forward at a very quick pace. The pair had only walked a few yards, and since the Doctor's stride was so fast, he walked right past a door. Clara tugged on the Doctor's arm. "Doctor, stop!" she insisted, adding, "You've missed a door."

"Have I?" The Doctor returned, looking behind him. "Oh, what do you know? Good job, you clever girl." he said, moving the opposite way toward the door. Clara followed, and peered eagerly over his shoulder as the doors slid open.

The Doctor looked around the hallway, sighing, before his gaze drifted back into the new room. "Blimey, you made _another _bathroom?"

"Another?" Clara asked, "You mean there are more?"

"Loads. She probably archives them somewhere, possibly she keeps them scattered all across the TARDIS; this is the third one I've found in two months. At least I think it's been two months… More often than not, time gets away from me."

"A Time Lord that time gets away from. Never heard that one before." Clara grinned as she took in the rest of the room. Compared to the other rooms, this one was actually a bit small. The room was around twelve square feet, and pentagonal. An area of the roof was cut out in the shape of a hexagon, and there was one light in each corner of the hollowed out hexagon. The walls were a dark cream color. The rest of the colors in the room were a darker brown or white marble, which complimented the rest of the room nicely. The cabinets underneath the sink were carved from mahogany wood, owning black handles not unlike the ones to the TARDIS. There was a breccia pernice marble bench with hollowed out areas that acted as sinks on each end of the six-foot long bench top. The mirror was as long as the bench, and was rimmed with mahogany wood that matched the cabinets. Three cone-shaped lights were spaced evenly out across the mirror, one in the center, one on the right, and one on the left.

At the end of the room, a triangular Jacuzzi carved from pure marble was constructed into the pentagon-shaped wall. Potted plants such as lilies and daisies were placed skillfully around the room, some on the beautifully tiled floor, some on the bench top, some on the rim of the Jacuzzi. On the two walls that made a point stood six windows, three on each wall. They were reminiscent of something to come out of an ancient Greek temple. Red, green, and black starry cosmos shone through the window.

"Whoa." Clara marveled. "Your TARDIS has a creative mind."

The Doctor stroked the wallpapered walls. "Yes, I suppose she does."

Clara saw a sparkling black-marble wall, so polished she could see her reflection in it. She grinned, admiring the glass rose that the Doctor had put in her hair. Originally, she thought the wall was solid, but on the contrary actually. There was a door that swung open when Clara pushed it. This room revealed where the toilet was housed. This small area was quite dull compared to the rest of the room, with just an ordinary commode and light cream wallpaper. Clara looked around for her ring, still without luck. She stepped back out into the central bathroom, pulling the door shut with her.

"How many more rooms are we going to have to look through before she just gives the ring back?" Clara asked. "Don't get me wrong, I love discovering all these new rooms, but that ring means the world to me." She explained.

"I know it does." The Doctor replied as he bent down to look in a tiny corner between a potted lily and the wall.

After the Doctor and Clara had searched every square inch of the remarkably small bathroom, they exited, both getting tired of the TARDIS's nonsense.

"Can you put my ring back… please?" Clara asked as she and the Doctor locked hands and moved in the direction in which they had come. The TARDIS groaned in response to Clara's question, and then became silent again. Clara had next suggested going back to the console room and looking in there, because they hadn't earlier. They walked a few more meters, and rounded a few more corners before Clara looked up at the Doctor with a half-hearted smile. "Why does she hate me so much?" she joked.

The Doctor didn't answer, he just smiled back down at his Impossible Girl as they curved around one last corner and finally found the dim blue light of the console room, where the calming sounds of the TARDIS were ever present.

Meanwhile, the TARDIS contemplated whether or not to return Clara's ring. After much consideration and thought, she reestablished the ring in the exact spot Clara had left it, on her dresser, with the loose diamond all repaired.

After searching the console room, Clara was finished for one day. She removed the glass flower from her hair, sighing as she brushed hair back from her face. She walked halfway around the console to where the Doctor was, sticking the flower in his lapel. "I'm going to go and take a nap." She said as she stretched and walked down the stairs. She followed the familiar path to her bedroom. When she entered the room, she walked over to the dresser, looking at herself briefly before she spotted something gleaming in the corner of her eye. Her gaze drifted over to where the glittering had come from, and was pleasantly shocked to see that her ring was sitting right where she had left it. She picked it up gingerly, in case the diamond would fall out. Clara smiled when she realized that the TARDIS had gone as far as to fix the ring as well. She kissed the ring, looking up at the roof of her bedroom. "Thank you." She whispered, slipping the ring back onto her middle finger as she climbed into bed.


End file.
